June 10, 2009

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- The first day of the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships at John McDonnell Field, the fifth-ranked University of Tennessee women advanced to the finals in two events and moved three athletes on to the semifinals in two other events before inclement weather forced a suspension of action at 7:03 p.m. Central Time Wednesday. Weather permitting, action was slated to resume at 10:15 p.m.

"So far, so good," UT Head Coach J.J. Clark said. "We've had a little rain delay, so we're not done yet. We have to get the 100 semis and 5K going, but so far everyone has moved through accordingly. The next rounds will be more difficult, but so far everyone is looking very good."

In the shot put qualifying round, sophomore Annie Alexander wasted little time in earning a spot in Thursday's final. On her second attempt, she met the automatic mark to advance with a heave of 55 feet even. With that effort, which ranks third of the 12 advancers, she placed behind only Arizona State's Sarah Stevens (56-10 3/4) and Florida's Mariam Kevkhishvili (55-5 1/2), the 2009 NCAA Indoor runner-up and champion, respectively. Alexander finished third behind that duo at indoor nationals and placed 10th at this meet a year ago in Des Moines, Iowa.

"Annie is as good as anyone when she gets in there and gets it going," Clark said. "It's just good to see her taking care of business and executing as her coach asked. We just look forward to her moving on to the discus qualifying and shot put final on Thursday."

Tennessee's 4x100-meter relay quartet also earned a berth in the finals. The quartet of senior Celriece Law, freshmen Ashley Harris and Ellen Wortham and junior Lynne Layne rolled around the oval in 44.29 seconds to finish second in heat two. They ranked eighth of the nine teams moving on to Friday night's "money race".

"Coach Pauline (Davis Thompson) has done a great job of getting them to move that stick," Clark said. "That's the key. You gotta move that stick well, and they've done a great job doing that. We just have to see how it all pans out in the finals. Right now, I'm proud of what they are doing."

Also efficiently taking care of business were junior Phoebe Wright and freshman Chanelle Price in the first round of the 800 meters. Wright, the national collegiate leader and the NCAA Indoor runner-up earlier this season, cruised to victory in heat two and posted the fastest mark of the qualifiers in 2:04.86. Price was right behind her in heat two, crossing the line second in 2:05.27 to advance to Thursday's semifinals as the fifth fastest of the qualifiers.

"It's so early (in the meet), but they both looked good," Clark said. "We're just now getting to the nuts and bolts of the meet and getting people into the position we believed they would be in. We'll just go from there."

In the first round of the 100-meter dash, junior Lynne Layne advanced to the semifinals by running 11.48 to place fifth in heat two and 17th fastest in the first round.

Following an inclement weather delay of three hours and 12 minutes, action finally resumed at John McDonnell Field around 10:15 p.m. Central Time. After going five-for-five in advancing entries to the next round earlier in the evening, the Tennessee women came up short twice in a pair of events that were contested well past their intended time due to intense lightning in the area.

Layne saw her run in the 100-meter dash come to an end. After clocking an 11.48 result to advance out of the first round in the evening hours, Layne's 11.78 output in the semifinal left her ninth in heat two and 16th overall. Only nine runners moved on to Friday's final.

In a race that started in the waning moments of Wednesday and concluded in the wee hours of Thursday morning, junior Jackie Areson was unable to move past the 5000m semifinals. Her clocking of 17:16.87 left her 13th in heat two and not among those moving on.

In addition to the shot put final and 800m semis on Thursday, Tennessee will have Alexander in the discus qualifying round, Law in the first round of the 100-meter hurdles, Layne in the first round and potentially semifinals of the 200 meters and senior Sarah Bowman in the semifinal round of the 1500 meters.

Action once again will be shown via live video streaming. To access that and live results, go to www.utladyvols.com and click on the "live video" or "live results" links on the front page's scrolling day-by-day sport schedule.